In 1979, the Health Services Research and Development Center used mechanisms established in previous years to identify local, state and national needs and priorities for technical assistance, training, dissemination and research programs. These mechanisms include three advisory groups, an affiliation program with six health care delivery sites that is designed to develop or strengthen health services research capabilities at the sites, and participation on committees and task forces. Training, technical assistance and dissemination activities continued at a high level and included workshops, doctoral dissertation supervision, consultation to health care systems, agencies and professional associations, and publication of a newsletter and papers in journals and books. New research grants and contracts address issues of cost containment, relationship of primary care to psychiatric care, disease detection and health education, prevalence of mental disorders in the community, availability and accessibility of care, unmet needs, and reliability and validity of injury severity scales now being used in EMS programs. All represent collaborative efforts between the Center and other divisions of The Johns Hopkins University. Investigations completed in 1979 include the Emergency Medical Services Research Program, a follow-up study of public service employment in the health care sector, the development of a mathematical model of the graduate medical education system, and a study of the prevalence of depression among members of a prepaid health plan.